Man’s best friend wasn’t a dog after all – it was a potty-mouthed, talking teddy with a penchant for scantily clad ladies.

Sadly, the bear necessities of modern life don’t stretch to a second film because Ted 2 is padded with as much fluff as the huggable hero.

The sweetness and romance, which distinguished the original Ted, have been diluted to the point of blandness here.Direction plods without any urgency and politically incorrect, gross-out interludes are laced with malice.

Ted’s supermarket co-worker (Cocoa Brown) passes on a nugget of her wisdom: “You better have a baby or your marriage is over”.

The bear lacks the necessary appendage to impregnate Tami-Lynn, so he hatches a plot to steal the sperm of American football legend Tom Brady (playing himself).

The bear-brained scheme misfires and Ted and Tami-Lynn approach an adoption agency.

But their application is red flagged as the state of Massachusetts won’t recognise Ted as a person.

“We take this all the way to Judge Judy if we have to,” bellows John and the pals head to court with idealistic attorney Samantha L Jackson (Amanda Seyfried) to uphold Ted’s civil rights.

Ted 2 runs on empty in terms of originality, relying on our affection for the characters to sustain interest. Wahlberg trades tired banter with his CGI pal and there’s an absence of chemistry with Seyfried.

At a critical juncture in the court case, Ted activates the voicebox in his chest and sweetly trills, “I love you!”

Formed in 1961, The Beach Boys perfectly captured the vitality and exuberance of California’s youth culture, surfing to the top of the charts with harmonised feel-good hits including I Get Around and Help Me, Rhonda.

The Wilson boys cowered in the shadow of their abusive father Murry, who managed the band, and main songwriter Brian was experiencing early manifestations of a mental illness.

Bill Pohlad’s sensitive biopic explores this turbulent period in the band’s history, juxtaposing Brian’s first battles with his illness and the love affair, 20 years later, which provided the creative spark for his award-winning solo album, Smile.

Scriptwriters Oren Moverman and Michael A Lerner overcome the daunting prospect of dual timeframes with finesse, and there are strong performances from Paul Dano and John Cusack as the two incarnations of music genius.

A nervous first date exposes Wilson’s mental fragility and Melinda learns that the singer-songwriter is under the care of his personal physician, Dr Eugene Landy (Paul Giamatti).

Brian’s quirks do not deter Melinda and when controlling Dr Landy attempts to terminate the relationship, the plucky car dealer recruits Brian’s housekeeper Gloria (Diana Maria Riva) to expose the medic as a madman.

Intercut with this pivotal romance, flashbacks usher in the groovy 1960s when Brian (Dano) reacts to the release of The Beatles’ record Revolver with steely resolve.

For a film which confronts the vagaries of the human mind and various forms of abuse, Love & Mercy is too neat in its depictions of characters.

Cusack nicely echoes vocal patterns and mannerisms in Dano’s portrayal, and Banks is luminous in the line of fire.

Giamatti and Camp err perilously close to pantomime villains, the latter eliciting boos when he sells the rights to The Beach Boys songs for a pittance, telling Brian, “Five years from now, no one is going to remember you or The Beach Boys.”